Vin Clancy (formerly Vincent Dignan) is one of those people who simply stand out from the pack.
But behind his outrageous clothing style, name change, rags-to-riches story and Facebook group success there is a long-term strategy made of well-thought hacks.
After Vin being a speaker at MTL+ECOMMERCE in April, I wanted him to be the first of my new Growth Hacker Interview series as he encompasses really well the growth hacking mindset as well as life hacking topics I tackle in my blog posts.
Here are answers to questions I’ve crowdsourced from Growth & Life Hackers like yourself!
1. What would you do differently if you were starting in Growth Hacking right now?
The best platforms right now for organic content marketing are LinkedIn and Facebook groups- lots of opportunities to get tonnes of engagement. The third, if used correctly, would be cold email.
2. 2 least & most sexy moments of your career? What did you learn from them?
After you learn how to market, and how to sell, comes learning how to manage others. This is an area that I had to massive improve on in the last 12 months. Raising the second round of money for my first startup was challenging, lots of fruitless meetings.
I remember one of my advisors telling me “You looked like you were going to kill the investor in that meeting!” I was like “damn!”
Vin Clancy at MTL+ECOMMERCE on April 26th, 2017
3. What’s your secret to being all over the place at any time? Have you managed to clone yourself?
Using the distribution of social networks. I’m a fan of public speaking too- it is still under-rated in creating super-fans. But being able to sit behind your laptop and make serious waves is amazing.
4. How does Vin Clancy determine the limit between acceptable vs. too spammy/pushy?
It’s never spam if you add value. You *know* if you’re adding value or not. It all needs to be tied to a mission, then everything aligns.
5. Do all Growth Hackers become Life Hackers by extension?
Haha, good question. I’d say the good ones do, yes.
6. What is the #1 mental shift anyone has to make in order to succeed?
Understanding the sacrifice needed. It takes such sacrifice to start to “make it”
7. How to growth hack your way to getting rockstar mentors alla Vin Clancy?
Buy their courses/stuff. Most people don’t have unique skills to “give value”, and me/others don’t have brainspace to work out what you should be doing.
Do some stuff for us and charm us. Give us something we don’t have. Most entrepreneurs don’t have a social life, so giving them that can be a good way in.
8. Is changing one’s name the ultimate Personal Branding Hack?
I think dedication is the ultimate growth hack. Most people don’t have it.
9. Your favorite growth hack of the moment?
Whatever is the latest one in my Facebook group, Traffic and Copy 😉
10. Is the Facebook Group strategy still relevant for anyone starting right now?
Yes.
11. Anything else you’d like to add to this Vinterview?
Montreal was one of my top 5 talks of the world tour (Which had about 150 talks in it in total) amazing turnout I couldn’t have predicted and great afterpartying after. Salut Canada, I hope to return one day!
Want Vin Clancy to coach you? Check out the last three-month mentoring program he’ll ever run here: http://vinclancy.co/
coachingprogram
Where can people find you online?
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/
vincentdignan - Website: http://vinclancy.com
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/
vincentdignan
Any additional question for Vin?
